Commission Rates by Industry: Benchmarks and Models (2026)

What's a "good" commission rate? Ask a real estate agent, a SaaS rep and a car salesperson, and you'll get three wildly different answers. There's a good reason for that.

Commission isn't just a number. It's a tool for driving the behavior you want in your organization. But that number has to fit your industry, your sales cycle and your margins.

In this guide, we go through commission rates and models across nine industries. Not to give you a definitive answer, but to give you the reference points you need to design a commission structure that actually motivates.

How we compiled this: benchmarks are compiled from public sources (regulators, statistics offices, industry bodies and named surveys) and were checked in October 2026. Ranges vary by country and company. Where we found no reliable data, we describe the structure instead of quoting a rate. Every figure is linked inline and listed under Sources at the end.

What you'll learn in this guide

• What public data says about commission in 9 industries, from real estate to pharma
• Which commission models work best in which industries
• How to benchmark your own structure, including Danish pay data by sales occupation
• Industry-specific rules you need to know
• The most common mistakes when designing industry-specific commission

Why commission varies so much between industries

Before we dive into specific industries, it's worth understanding why commission varies so dramatically. A US buyer's agent earned an average of 2.42% of the sale price in Q3 2025, according to brokerage Redfin, which on a typical home is thousands of dollars per deal. A retail salesperson selling a phone earns a small fraction of that. This isn't about one industry being more "generous". It's about fundamentally different business models.

Four factors that determine commission levels

1. Sales cycle length

The longer the sales cycle, the higher the commission per deal, but usually the fewer deals. An enterprise rep can go months between closed deals, so commission per deal has to carry them through the "dry" months.

2. Deal size

Large deals (a $500,000 property, for example) can support lower percentage rates because the absolute amount is still significant. Small deals (a $500 phone) need either higher percentage rates or high volume to motivate.

3. Margins and profitability

High-margin businesses can afford more commission than low-margin ones. B2B SaaS companies report a median subscription gross margin of 81% (Benchmarkit, 2025), while US grocery retailers reported a net profit margin of 1.6% in 2023 (FMI, via Grocery Dive). Gross and net margins aren't directly comparable, but the gap tells you why one industry pays commission on every deal and the other rarely does.

4. Customer behavior and retention

When customers stay for years, it makes sense to invest more in acquiring them, and therefore to pay more commission. Insurance is the classic example: a policy can renew year after year, and commission structures reflect that.

For a deeper look at how commission-based pay works, see our complete guide.

Commission in real estate

Real estate is probably the best-known "commission industry". But how agents are paid differs a lot between markets: in the US the fee is a percentage of the price, while in Denmark it is usually a fixed fee.

Typical commission rates

Two things stand out. First, the US figure is the buyer's side only; the listing agent is paid on top. Second, in percentage terms a Danish fixed fee shrinks as prices rise: DKK 60,000 on a DKK 4 million house is 1.5%.

Agent's share vs. brokerage

The fee rarely goes straight to the agent. It is split between the agent and the brokerage, which covers marketing, office, systems and brand. The split depends on the agent's experience, own pipeline and the brokerage model, and varies too much between firms and countries for a single benchmark to be useful. For employed agents in Denmark, Danmarks Statistik reports average earnings of DKK 55,160 per month in 2025 for real estate agent and property administrator work (all employees, including pension and irregular payments such as bonuses).

Models in real estate

Commission-only model: No base salary, 100% commission. High risk, high reward. Most common among independent agents.

Base + commission: A fixed salary plus a share of the fees the agent generates. Common for employed agents, where the brokerage carries more of the cost and risk.

Want to understand the different commission models better? We've compiled the 7 most common ones.

Trends and challenges

Pressure on rates: Online and fixed-price brokers compete on price, and in the US new NAR rules took effect in 2024. So far the effect on buyer's agent commissions has been small: Redfin's Q3 2025 average was roughly back where it stood before the rules.

Transparency: Sellers compare fees more than before and expect to see what the fee covers.

Motivation challenge: In a hot market, properties sell themselves. In a cold one, it takes real sales effort. The commission model has to motivate in both.

Commission in insurance

Insurance is unique because customers often stay for many years. That's reflected in commission structures, which typically combine an up-front payment with a smaller recurring one.

Life insurance vs. property and casualty

The Australian cap is a useful reference point because it is one of the few hard numbers set by a regulator. It also shows where the market was before: caps were phased down from 80% in 2018 to 60% in 2020.

Renewal commission

This is where insurance stands apart from most other industries. An insurance advisor can build a portfolio of clients that pays commission year after year.

Hypothetical example (illustrative numbers, not a benchmark): an advisor with 500 clients, each paying $2,000 a year in premium, on a 5% renewal commission:

• 500 × $2,000 × 5% = $50,000 a year in recurring commission

That creates a completely different dynamic than industries where every sale is a one-off.

The flip side is clawback. Under the Australian rules, 100% of the commission is clawed back if a policy is cancelled in year one, and 60% in year two. Read more about commission clawbacks.

Compliance and regulation

Insurance distribution is heavily regulated in the EU, and that shapes commission:

• Best interest: Distributors must act "honestly, fairly and professionally in accordance with the best interests of their customers" (IDD Art. 17(1)).
• No conflicting incentives: Remuneration and sales targets must not push staff to recommend one product when another would suit the customer better (IDD Art. 17(3)). Denmark implements this in § 13 of the Insurance Mediation Act.
• Disclosure: Customers must be told the nature of the remuneration (commission, fee or a combination), and the amount when the customer pays a fee directly (IDD Art. 19).

Learn more about compliance in commission and what to watch out for.

Want to give your reps real-time insight into their commission?

With Prowi's employee app, salespeople get a notification every time they close a deal and can track their earnings in real time. It creates transparency and motivation.

→ Book a demo

Commission in car sales

We found no reliable public benchmark for car sales commission rates in Denmark or Europe, so we only describe the structure here. A car salesperson's pay is built from several parts of the deal: a flat amount per new car or a share of its gross profit, usually a gross-profit share on used cars, and separate payouts for financing contracts, insurance policies, accessories and service plans. Paying on gross profit protects the dealer against discount-driven volume. Because car sales follow seasons and model-year changes, dealers often add SPIFFs (short-term bonuses) to move specific models in slow periods.

Commission in SaaS and software

SaaS is one of the most structured industries when it comes to sales commission, and one of the few with regular public benchmark surveys.

ACV-based commission

In SaaS, commission is typically calculated on ACV (annual contract value). A widely quoted rule of thumb is that reps earn "around 10% of the Annual Contract Value" (SaaStr, 2025). Survey data on pay mix:

The Bridge Group's 2026 survey of 158 B2B companies puts median AE OTE at $200K, median quota at $960K and the quota-to-OTE ratio at 4.6x. Our own math: if roughly 47% of a $200K OTE is variable, that's about $94K on a $960K quota, close to 10% of quota. The two sources point to the same place. Note that the Bridge Group is a consultancy and its samples are mostly US companies.

Understand OTE and quotas better in our dedicated guide, or see our commission benchmarks by role.

Accelerators above quota

SaaS is known for accelerators. SaaStr suggests paying 15–20% on deals closed above quota. An illustrative tiered structure might look like this:

• 0–80% of quota: Reduced rate (e.g., 8% of ACV)
• 80–100% of quota: Standard rate (e.g., 10% of ACV)
• 100–120% of quota: Accelerated rate (e.g., 15% of ACV)
• 120%+ of quota: Top rate (e.g., 18–20% of ACV)

Accelerators matter more than they seem: in the Bridge Group's 2026 data, only 48% of reps hit their annual quota. These commission accelerators are designed to reward top performers and keep everyone pushing past quota.

New business vs. expansion vs. renewal

Not all revenue is equal in SaaS. Most plans pay the most for new business (hardest to win), less for expansion (an existing customer buying more) and little or nothing for renewals, which are often owned by Customer Success. The exact rates differ too much between companies for a single benchmark, but the order of priority is consistent.

This differentiation keeps salespeople focused on what creates real growth.

Learn more about SDR and BDR compensation specifically.

Commission in B2B sales (general)

B2B sales spans widely, from consulting services to industrial components. Public benchmarks outside SaaS are scarce, so here are the design principles rather than rates.

Enterprise vs. SMB structures

Longer sales cycles = different timing

Enterprise B2B deals can take many months. That calls for special considerations:

• Draws: Advances on commission against future deals
• Pipeline bonuses: Rewards for building qualified pipeline
• Milestone-based payouts: Commission at defined stages (signature, go-live, first invoice)

Team-based models

Complex B2B deals often involve several people:

• SDR (prospecting)
• AE (closing)
• Solution engineer (technical)
• Customer success (implementation)

Commission needs to be shared fairly. In most team models the closing AE gets the largest share, and the supporting roles get a smaller, defined share or a separate bonus. The right split depends on how much each role actually influences the win, so write it down before the deal, not after.

Learn how to design a fair and scalable commission model.

Commission in financial services

In financial services, the rules matter more than the rates. EU law limits how sales staff and intermediaries can be paid, to protect consumers from conflicts of interest.

Banking and mortgage

Asset management

In asset management, the money comes from fees on assets rather than commission per sale. For context, ESMA's 2026 report puts the ongoing costs of retail equity funds (UCITS) in the EU at 1.32% a year and bond funds at 0.81% (2024 data), and notes that costs keep falling. That fee pool is what distribution and advice are paid from.

Regulatory restrictions

Taken together, the rules mean:

• Best interest first: Pay must not steer product selection against the customer
• Disclosure: Customers must be told about costs and charges, including how the adviser is paid
• Suitable products: Advice must match the customer's profile, not the commission

That's why many financial institutions pay sales staff mainly fixed salary, with variable pay tied to broader goals than product sales.

See also our guide to the EU Pay Transparency Directive and what it means for commission.

Commission that drives the behavior you want?

It's not just about rates. It's about designing incentives that motivate the right actions. See how Prowi helps you create transparency and motivation.

→ Book a demo

Commission in retail

Retail is volume-driven with thin margins, which limits how much commission a store can pay per sale. In Denmark, shop sales staff earned an average of DKK 32,260 per month in 2025 (Danmarks Statistik), well below the DKK 52,846 average for all employees.

Typical structures

SPIFFs and short-term incentives

Retail often uses SPIFF programs to:

• Push specific products (e.g., vendor-funded campaigns)
• Clear inventory before a new collection
• Boost sales in slow periods
• Introduce new products

Example: "Sell five units of this phone model this week and get a $100 bonus."

Category-specific bonuses

Many retail chains pay bonuses by category:

• Add-on products: Extra commission on cases, insurance, cables
• Services: Commission on installation, setup, support
• Memberships: Bonus for signing up loyalty program members

Commission in recruiting and staffing

Recruiting has some of the highest fees per "sale", but also real risk: the fee depends on the candidate actually starting and staying.

Fee-based commission

The SHRM figures are older and US-based, and the DTU prices come from a competitive public tender, so treat them as a range, not a rate card. The recruiter's own commission is usually a share of the fee (or of the gross margin on temps), set by each agency.

Example calculation: permanent placement

Hypothetical numbers: the fee is at the low end of the SHRM range, and the recruiter's 30% share is an assumption, not a benchmark.

• Candidate's annual salary: $80,000
• Recruiting fee (20%): $16,000
• Recruiter's commission (30% of fee): $4,800

That's significant commission, but it also has to cover months without placements.

Guarantee periods and clawbacks

Agencies usually offer a guarantee: if the candidate leaves within an agreed period, the client gets a replacement or a full or partial refund, often scaled by how quickly the person left. Terms are negotiated contract by contract.

Many agencies have clawback provisions where the recruiter's commission is returned (fully or partly) if the client gets a refund.

That creates a healthy incentive: it's not enough to "close" a candidate; the candidate also has to be a good fit.

Commission in pharma and medical devices

Pharma is probably the most regulated industry when it comes to sales incentives. Here it's compliance first.

Regulatory restrictions

• Prescription drugs: EU member states must prohibit advertising prescription-only medicines to the general public (Directive 2001/83/EC, Art. 88).
• Industry codes: Industry bodies run ethics codes for interaction with healthcare professionals. In Denmark, that's ENLI (Etisk Nævn for Lægemiddelindustrien).
• Pay rules for reps: The UK industry code requires that representatives "must be paid a fixed, basic salary" and that any sales-linked addition "must not constitute an undue proportion of their remuneration" (ABPI Code 2024, clause 17.6).

Target-based bonuses instead of commission

Most pharma companies therefore use:

• Territory targets: Bonus based on the region's overall performance
• Activity targets: Quality and number of customer interactions (the same UK code says calls on a prescriber should not normally exceed three a year, and that targets must be realistic)
• Market share targets: Share of the market in the territory
• KOL engagement: Relationships with key opinion leaders

Typical compensation structure

For pay levels, Danmarks Statistik reports average earnings of DKK 75,439 per month in 2025 for technical and medical sales (excluding ICT). See also our general guide to commission and compliance.

How to benchmark your commission structure

Now you've seen how commission works across industries. How do you use this to evaluate your own structure?

Step 1: Compare with the market

Start by positioning yourself:

• Is your commission rate above, below or in line with what the market pays for the same role?
• How does your base/variable split compare?
• Do you have the same type of accelerators as competitors?

If you pay below market, you probably won't attract top talent. If you pay well above, you may be eating too much of the margin. If you hire in Denmark, total pay levels by sales occupation are a useful sanity check:

Source: Danmarks Statistik, table LONS20, standardized monthly earnings, all sectors. The figures cover employees only (not self-employed agents) and include pension and irregular payments such as bonuses; overtime is excluded (definition). For more detail, see our guide to sales salaries in Denmark.

Step 2: Consider your company's maturity

Step 3: Balance motivation and profitability

The right commission model:

• Motivates the actions you want
• Attracts and retains talent
• Is financially sustainable for the company
• Is simple enough for salespeople to understand

Learn more about commission management and how to administer commission effectively.

Common mistakes with industry commission

From years of building and reviewing commission plans, these are the mistakes we see again and again:

Mistake 1: Copy-paste from other industries

"I heard SaaS companies pay 10% commission. Let's do the same."

The problem: your industry may have completely different margins, sales cycles and deal sizes. 10% of a $50,000 software contract is not the same as 10% of a $10,000 consulting project.

Solution: Start with your own economics. What can you afford to pay in cost of sale per deal?

Mistake 2: Ignoring industry-specific sales cycles

A model that works for fast transactional sales doesn't work for 12-month enterprise sales cycles.

Examples of mistakes:

• Only monthly targets in enterprise sales (no closed deals = $0)
• No pipeline component in long sales cycles
• The same model for new business and renewals

Mistake 3: Overly complex structures

"We have commission on revenue, plus an accelerator on quota, plus a SPIFF on new products, plus a team bonus, plus quarterly targets, plus..."

If your salespeople can't explain their commission model in 30 seconds, it's too complex.

Solution: Keep it to 3–4 components at most. Focus on the 1–2 behaviors that matter most.

Mistake 4: No transparency

Salespeople who don't know exactly what they're earning lose motivation. It's that simple.

Solution: Real-time visibility into earnings. No surprises on payday.

Learn how real-time commission drives motivation.

Conclusion: Commission must fit the industry, and your strategy

We've covered nine industries and seen how differently commission works:

• Real estate: Around 2.4% to a US buyer's agent; a fixed fee in Denmark
• Insurance: Up-front plus renewal commission, increasingly capped and regulated
• Car sales: Composite pay from the car, financing, insurance and add-ons
• SaaS: Around 10% of ACV, roughly 50/50 pay mix, accelerators above quota
• B2B: Pay mix shifts toward base as deals get bigger, with team components
• Finance: Heavily regulated; pay must not steer advice
• Retail: Thin margins, small per-item payouts, SPIFFs
• Recruiting: High fees per placement, with guarantee and clawback risk
• Pharma: Fixed base and target-based bonuses, compliance first

But here's what matters most: industry benchmarks are a starting point, not an answer.

The best commission model is the one that drives the behavior you actually want in your organization. That requires you to know:

1. What do you want your salespeople to do more of?
2. How do you reward exactly that behavior?
3. How do you make it transparent so they know what they're working toward?

Commission isn't about administration. It's about motivation.

Ready to design commission that motivates?

Prowi helps you build transparent commission models where your salespeople can track their earnings in real time. It's not just about calculating commission; it's about using commission as the motivation tool it should be.

→ Book a demo and see how

Sources

1. Redfin, "The Average Buyer's Agent Commission Has Risen Slightly Since New NAR Rules Went Into Effect" (Q3 2025), 8 December 2025. redfin.com/news/commissions-q3-2025
2. Bolius, "Så meget koster det at sælge sit hus", updated 17 August 2022. bolius.dk
3. Danmarks Statistik, StatBank table LONS20 (earnings by occupation), 2025 data. statistikbanken.dk/LONS20
4. Danmarks Statistik, definition of standardized earnings (FORTJ-STAND). dst.dk
5. Benchmarkit, "2025 B2B SaaS Performance Metrics Benchmarks". benchmarkit.ai/2025benchmarks
6. Grocery Dive, "Grocery industry profit margins fall to pre-pandemic levels: FMI" (FMI, The Food Retailing Industry Speaks 2024), 3 July 2024. grocerydive.com
7. ASIC Corporations (Life Insurance Commissions) Instrument 2017/510, Explanatory Statement. legislation.gov.au
8. Directive (EU) 2016/97 (Insurance Distribution Directive), Article 17. legislation.gov.uk
9. Directive (EU) 2016/97 (Insurance Distribution Directive), Article 19, EIOPA Interactive Single Rulebook. eiopa.europa.eu
10. Lov om forsikringsformidling (LBK nr. 1543 of 18/11/2025), § 13. lovguiden.dk
11. SaaStr (Jason Lemkin), "Dear SaaStr: What is the Standard Commission Percentage in SaaS?", 8 October 2025. saastr.com
12. The Bridge Group, 2026 AE compensation, quota and metrics, June 2026. bridgegroupinc.com
13. The Bridge Group, 2024 AE Metrics and Compensation Benchmark, 5 March 2024. bridgegroupinc.com
14. The Bridge Group, 2025 SDR Models and Metrics Report, 6 February 2025. bridgegroupinc.com
15. Directive 2014/17/EU (Mortgage Credit Directive), Article 7. legislation.gov.uk
16. Directive 2014/65/EU (MiFID II), Article 24. legislation.gov.uk
17. NJORD Law Firm, on the Danish ban on commission in discretionary portfolio management from 1 July 2017. njordlaw.com
18. ESMA, "New investment funds drive reduction in costs to investors" (Costs and Performance of EU Retail Investment Products 2025), 3 March 2026. esma.europa.eu
19. SHRM, "How to Work Effectively with an Executive Search Firm", 18 July 2016. shrm.org
20. DTU, tender for recruitment services, Appendix 2: prices (2024). dtu.dk
21. Directive 2001/83/EC (medicinal products for human use), Article 88. legislation.gov.uk
22. PMCPA, ABPI Code of Practice 2024, Clause 17: Representatives. pmcpa.org.uk
23. ENLI, Etisk Nævn for Lægemiddelindustrien. enli.dk